1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automatically fastening seatbelt system wherein webbings for restraining an occupant is automatically fastened about the occupant upon his entering a vehicle, thereby improving the safety of the occupant in the event of an emergency situation of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There has been proposed a so-called automatically fastening seatbelt system wherein a portion of one of the occupant restraining webbings is driven in the longitudinal direction of a vehicle by a driving force of a motor upon his entering the vehicle so as to automatically fasten the webbings about him. In the automatically fastening seatbelt system of the type described, if a portion of a lap webbing is flexed forward in looking from the vehicle when the occupant enters or leaves the vehicle, then the lap of the occupant can avoid sliding on the lap webbing, so that it becomes possible for the occupant to comfortably enter or leave the vehicle.
In the automatically fastening seatbelt system described above, and in order to move the lap webbing, it becomes necessary to provide an additional motor for driving the lap webbing in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle; also a motor is needed for driving the occupant restraining webbings as a whole, thus requiring four motors for a driver and an assistant driver. As a consequence, without mentioning the resulting cost increase, an increased weight of the vehicle is caused by the motors.